1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to media distribution and more specifically to appropriate segmenting of media for streaming.
2. Introduction
Media distribution, including video distribution, via the Internet is a source of many problems for many reasons, including video encoding formats, bandwidth, playback device capabilities, different screen sizes and resolutions, and so forth. Some device manufacturers provide a set of guidelines for media distributors as a standard or generally accepted way to stream media to that manufacturer's devices, such as a standard chunk size for streaming media. Apple, as an example, has established a 10 second chunk size for streaming video to iPad devices, taking in to account the memory capabilities, bandwidth, and other limitations of the iPad. This chunk size is sufficient to play a current chunk while fetching the next chunk in the background for uninterrupted playback. The final chunk has a size of the remaining time of the video, which is not a problem for single video asset playback, but causes playback problems for multiple asset playback, especially at video boundaries. At a video boundary, the final chunk of a first video segment can be too small (depending on the remaining time for the first video segment after breaking it into 10 second chunks) to allow the device to finish fetching the first chunk of a next video segment. This causes stuttering, pausing, and/or other undesirable video playback effects for the end user.